Customer Reviews

Ventilation

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(16)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Back in the days on the Blvd. of Linden...a band of guys hooked up to form the Tribe. The Questers helmed some of the greatest Hip-Hop recordings of the past decade. Sadly, around the making of BEATS, RHYMES, & LIFE, internal conflicts between Tip & Phife made the group unfocused, and after the unaptly named LOVE MOVEMENT album, there was hardly any love left at all. It was only right to split.

Phife has held in a whole lot during the entire ordeal, and he uses this CD as a vehicle to let it all out...hence the title, VENTILATION. So...what does he have to let out?

1)HIS OBVIOUS CONTEMPT FOR FORMER PARTNER Q-TIP: This especially seen in "Flawless", where he goes on in his first verse trashing Q-Tip's horrid attempt at commercialism, AMPLIFIED. "Sing ballads if it's all about the Maxwell look!" Too bad that in his attempt at dissing Tip, he actually gave Tip some bad ideas, as Tip would attempt to do just that in his (THANKFULLY) unreleased album, KAMAAL THE ABSTRACT. Thanks, for that aural atrocity! (Tip's 'singing' in "Barely In Love" still gives me NIGHTMARES!)

2)HIS HATRED FOR JIVE RECORDS: It was because of the success from Tribe, Too $hort, Spice 1, and the Hieroglyphics that Jive stayed alive long enough to bank on manufactured 'artists' like Spears and Timberlake. "How quickly they forget who brought (Jive) to the top!" Indeed.

3)HIS CONTEMPT FOR THE CURRENT ICED OUT HIP-HOP: He spends most of this CD bashing the Industry, "confused by the corny B.S. people listen to", like the iced out trends and R&B hooks. Too bad he provides just as much B.S. in this CD, like 'Club-hoppa', and 'BEN DOVA', where he ruins a slammin' J-Dilla track by telling girls to...BEN DOVA. He brings his crew of no-names, aptly named NO NAME, to ruin another J-Dilla track with garbage lyrics like "There's a lotta MC's that spit dat (ish)/and a lotta fools out there that just talk (ish)" BRILLIANT! Another No Name member says, "When it comes to rap, I GOT AN ARM LIKE A QUARTERBACK!" (What?!) and goes on to pop bottles at every party. They all get together for what is perhaps that DUMBEST HOOK EVER: "We here to git da paper, nevermind these (...)/THEY AIN'T GOIN' NOWHERE CUZ WE ALWAYS GET ...!!" Kinda makes all of Phife's anti-Industry rants moot, doesn't it?

4)LOTS AND LOTS OF CUSSING!!: Without Tip & Ali around to tell him to tone it down, Phife uses that opportunity to CRAM AS MANY CUSS WORDS INTO EVERY SINGLE BAR AS POSSIBLE! In the aforementioned 'Flawless', he tries to find as many words as he can to rhyme with (ish)! This makes Phife sound worse than he ever was!!

In addition to the hypocritical anti-Industry rants and massive cussing, another problem is the production. Now, don't get me wrong. Phife does get some awesome beats from Hi-Tek ('Flawless'), J-Dilla ('Ben Dova'), and Pete Rock ('Melody Adonis', which Phife uses for his rehash of Common's 'I Used To Love H.E.R.'). The problem is that 1)most of these beats get wasted, and 2)it doesn't flow as an album, like the 1st 4 Tribe recordings. It's just Phife rhyming over a collecion of beats. Remember, people--THERE IS MORE TO PRODUCTION THAN MAKING A DOPE BEAT!

Phife's newfound freedom has made him regress as an MC. He went from a high-pitched fairy in INSTICTIVE TRAVELS...to the 5ft freak we all know and love. Too bad he didn't grow from that. Because of that, he cannot carry more than one song by himself.

With Tip & Phife making horrible solo efforts, I hope and pray that a Tribe reunion DOESN'T happen. Just leave us all with the wonderful memories that we have.

i would really give this a 3.5

Phife Dawg's solo LP has its high points and low points...

**song by song rating**

"Flawless" is one of the LP's best tracks. Hi-tek mixes a good beat and Phifey is shooting some good lyrics including that diss to Q-tip (which I believe Tip deserves for what he's become)...

"Alphabet Soup" is mixed very well by Hi-tek and Phife delivers some good lyrics...

"Miscellaneous" is an OK track, nothing special about it...

"DRUGS" has a good beat and Phife spits some good lyrics dissing what has become of hiphop commercially...

"The Club Hoppa" was ok, but nothing special about this either...

"Lemme Find Out" is one of the LP's worst tracks. The Pete Rock mixed beat sucked and Phife didn't really do that much better...

"Ben Dova" shows us Phife's more humorous side. This is one of the best songs and it's something to party to...

"Beats Rhymes & Phife" is a reflection of Phife's life. The beat is good and Phife shows us his fun storytelling skills...one of the LP's best tracks...

"Ventilation" is Phife's kinda "don't **** me off" track. The beat and lyrics are good...but the lyrics and beat doesn't mix well together...

"4 Horsemen" shows us Phife and No-Name's freestyling skills. No-Name's mcs are average but Phife isn't that impressive either...

"Melody Adonis" is definately the LP's best track. Pete Rock showed us that he wasn't totally lazy on this release. The lyrics and the beat are really good...

so overall LYRICS - 7 (better in Tribe) BEATS - 8 (some mixed real nicely) CREATIVITY - 5 (has to work on that...can't be saying what hiphop should be all the time, even though I agree with him)

phife should have included Thought U Wuz Nice and If Men Are Dawgs, they would have made the LP better...

It was only a matter of time before Phife released his album. Since I have been a Tribe fan I didn't hesitate to buy this album. I was skeptical when Flawless was the first track on the album. Usually when the first track on the album is the song that is released it spells trouble. After listening to the album I was glad this is a hip-hop album and not a rap album (If you want to know the difference email me thereal_ten10@hotmail.com). The album lived up to my expectations. My favorite song is Melody Adonis. It's similar to the song Common did I Use To Love H.E.R., which describes hip-hop as a female. Beats, Rhymes, and Phife is a trip through his musical career (frustrations and joys). I only have one problem with this album. Phife is a lyrical wiz, so it was disoppointing at times when his profanitiy on the album seemed out of place and forced. All together this is a good freshman solo debut for Phife. He points out the various problems with the rap community. It's good to see he did have some good insight. I would recommend this album.

Phife & Q-Tip parted ways from Tribe, but Phife kept it lyrically real to hip-hop. With such hot producers as Pete Rock, Hi-Tek, and Jay-Dee, the beats stay tight and consistant. If you liked Phife's MCing in the past, nothing's changed. The 5 Footer shows how one could grow mentally in hip-hop for 2K and beyond.

As an original fan of A Tribe Called Quest I am glad to hear some true orginal hip hop from Phife. Phife continues to carry the baton for true hip hop fans everywhere!! If you are looking for money flashing and partying songs please do not look here. Strictly hard beats and great lyrics. It is so refreshing to hear a break from the current monotony in hip hop. Listening to this album you can definatley tell that Phife is not happy with the current state of hip hop or the state of his former group and he lets the listners know it. Ventilation is a must buy!!!

Phife Dawg's album is what I, a fan of tribe since 92 have been waiting for. Tip got alot of props but Phife was constantly over looked. His style was diferent and more of a ruffneck Mc. There are many unvieled reference to Tip without mentioning him by name on many tracks but Im glad they squashed that beef. Also in the liner notes there is a refernce to Tribe getting back together. This is a great album and has many hot beats by the best young producer Hi Tek and beats that add to the legend known as Pete Rock. If youre down with Tribe or dope Non-Bling Hip hop then make this yours.

Other than "flawless", this album is embarrassing. Phife is one of the best MC's of all time so we expect him to hold a higher standard than this.

Perhaps I was so disappointed because I had hoped so much for Phife on this album. I was hoping for more of that old jazz flavor with the assumption that Phife would stay truer to the original Trible style. As with a lot of disbanded groups, the members of Tribe Called Quest have hit the "EPMD Syndrome". Both are much better paired up rather than on solo albums. Neither simply have enough charisma to hold their own album. The fantastic dynamic between Q-Tip's more mainstream, scratchy voice, and Phife's underground, down to earth style made them a fantastic pair.

"Ventilation" is just that. The whole album is one, seemingly angry vent of complaints and whining, EXTREMELY similar to Keith Murray's second album, Enigma, which faired just as poorly. In plain English, as most of my friends will rate albums, this is simply not worth the retail price, and will see only a few times in your music system before you get tired of it. Get this album only if you feel you require all of the Tribe Called Quest stuff, but this is an album you can overlook for many, many better releases that debuted this year. The rhymes are okay, the beats are so-so, and production is average, making this just another hip hop album.

You'll never find a bigger ATCQ fan than me. You'll never find a bigger Phife Dawg fan than me either......but I believe in writing honest and unbiased reviews. I regret having to say that this CD comes dangerously close to being wack. It's not so much that Phife can't carry a song by himself, but something is missing. Phife actually has some dope solo tracks under his belt:

1) Butter - (from "The Low End Theory" LP '91)
2) 8 Million Stories - (from the "Midnight Marauders" LP '93)
3) Baby Phife's Return - (from the "Beats Rhymes & Life" LP '96)
4) His Name Is Muddy Ranks - (from "The Love Movement" LP '98)


These songs are all tight, and it could be argued that "8 Million Stories" and "Butter" are classic joints. With that being said, "Ventalation: Da LP" is a subpar release from a dope MC. There are so many reasons for the LP being a faliure.

Like other reviewers have pointed out, the first thing to stand out is the overuse of curse words. In my mind, cursing takes away from skills because anyone can make a curse word rhyme. It takes more skill to rhyme without cursing and I think that's one of the things that made ATCQ so appealing. Don't get me wrong, Tribe did curse from time to time, but Phife curses so much that I had to check the credits to make sure Richard Pryor didn't write the lyrics.

Another reason the CD is boring is because Phife hasn't improved lyrically. These are the same rhymes that you'll hear on any ATCQ LP...but with more swearing. That lack of improvement (or decline in skills depending on your view) makes at least 70% of this CD skippable.

Another reason to come to mind is the suspect production and the number of wack joints on the album. Supa Dav West needs to stick to singing because his production is suspect. I was even more shocked to hear such subpar production from Pete Rock on "Lemme Find Out". I'd have to say that "Ben Dova", "Miscellaneous" and "Lemme Find Out" are straight wack. "4 Horseman (192 N' It)" has a tight beat (courtesy of Jay Dee), but Phife and the aptly named trio No Name totally wasted it with some of the wackest lyrics I've heard since Vanilla Ice. Even the hook sucks: "This I'm holdin' down for Linden Bully like what / runnin' through life and not givin' a f*ck / gotta get your paper / nevermind these sluts / they ain't goin' nowhere / we can always get butt". It gets no sadder than that.

There are some good tracks on this album though. "Alphabet Soup" and "Flawless" are good, but they come off as skippable. "Tha Club Hoppa" reminds me of the ATCQ Phife that handled business on the previously mentioned solo joints. And then there are certified bangers like "D.R.U.G.S." (produced by Hi Tek) and "Melody Adonis" where Pete Rock redeems himself with a tight beat and Phife actually uses it well.

Overall, I'd have to say that this CD is somewhat dissappointing. The beats were suspect and Phife might've lost a step or two on the mic. If you're an ATCQ fan that was expecting more of the same on his solo joint, then you'll get most of the lyrics you're looking for, but most of the beats won't do anything for you. I'd only reccomend this to collectors that have everything else associated with Native Tongue / ATCQ.

Standout Tracks: Alphabet Soup, Flawless, Ventilation, Tha Club Hoppa, and D.R.U.G.S. (My Favorite)

If you've ever had the pleasure of listening to Tribe's many albums, then you will notice a definative split in style:those dominated by Q-Tip, and those by Phife. The album is all Phife Diggy. Less jazzy, more soul, and most importantly, more hip-hop. This whole album is more raw than ATCQ ever was. If tracks like "Can I Kick It?" and most of The Low-End Theory are your thing, then so is this.